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This past week we celebrated Robin’s (vegandollhouse) Birthday. There is a new vegan catering/meal delivery service in our area called Veganation and damn if their food isn’t ah-mazing. You will probably see a separate post with a review in the future. After having a bit of a stressful week, it was so nice to just hang with my girls and relax (and let someone else do the cooking!).

Happy Birthday Robin!

Look at this super cute sprinkle bow she got as a gift from Ashley (The Vegan Adventure). She also got some pretty cooking salts and I got her a unicorn bike bell to match her unicorn hair and style.

These girls crack me up.

And over the weekend I went for a hike with my friend Di. Shortly after moving here and I realized how awesome hiking is, I heard of a hike called Mount Diablo. It’s been a goal of mine ever since as it’s a very challenging hike. I didn’t want to do it alone as I tend to get lost easily (I once made a 2-hour hike into a 4-hour one after somehow getting off the trail). So Di suggested we tackle it together. We’re both crazy – let’s just get that out of the way.

It was by far the hardest hike I have ever done! It was 13 miles with an elevation of 3,800 feet. It also happened to be 90 degrees the day we picked, but neither of us had any free days in sight, so we trudged on anyway. It took us seven hours with the heat, we considered turning around a few times, but persevered and were rewarded with an incredible view.

And we saw wildflowers all along the way.

Stopping for our picnic lunch was nice. Food never tasted SO GOOD!

I couldn’t move when I got home haha. I wasn’t particularly sore the next day fortunately.

Seven years ago today marks the change in my life I made for better health & wellness. Despite going vegan purely for health reasons in the beginning, the rest (animal welfare/equality/rights, the environment, etc) have fallen into place. I am not only healthier, but happier and more in tune with my body. I appreciate food more, have fallen in love with cooking and am so much more open to try new things. I have met amazing friends along the way and am excited to see how many more paths I will cross in future. Veganism has made me stronger, kinder, better, healthier, happier, fiercer and more balanced in life. I am grateful for those who inspired me to jump into a plant based lifestyle and hope I do the same for others 💖

I had the most exciting adventure last weekend! I was asked by Robin to accompany her to Vegan Vida Con (VVC) in Austin Texas. We had so much fun.

We met the sticky sweet heat of Austin. Even though it is definitely a big city, I love the small town feel. Cute little houses, everyone is friendly and many people have a sprinkling of lights strung up on their patios. It’s where old and new blend and vintage meets modern. Austin is charming and quaint and it made me homesick for my small town in Southwestern Ontario. I also loved that cowboy hats and boots are in fashion.

Friday started off with us jetting out to Austin and hitting up the Bazaar to meet some vendors and try some very cool new products.

And the good people of Manitoba Harvest brought hemp seeds. And I got a sample of protein powder and really liked it. It has a good amount of protein in it, tastes great and isn’t chalky. And this of course reminded me of home as they are from Manitoba, Canada.

One of my favourite things was the capitol building, down the street from our hotel. It’s gorgeous – probably the nicest one I’ve seen.

Stunning.

Another favourite part of the trip – the epic swag bag!!

The conference itself was jampacked of interesting talks and I got to hear and meet some great speakers.

Hannah Kaminsky Bittersweet Blog gave some great talks on food styling and food photography.

I even got to practice =)

I got to see one of my absolute favourite bloggers speak on health care careers. I even got a chance to introduce myself and tell her how much I adore her blog (and hopefully didn’t come off like a creepy blog stalker haha ;p). She is an amazing speaker. I was in awe of how completely at ease she was and comfortable speaking in front of a crowd. It was one of the best talks. And here’s to looking into becoming a Registered Dietician!

And Lacy Davis of Super Strength Health spoke about the vegan athlete and a separate talk on body image. I of course knew who this blogging superstar is, but was completely shocked when she knew who I was and let me know how much she likes Healthy Vegan Fridays. Vegan Celebrity say what?! Made my entire weekend =D I kinda want to be her new super best friend… again, without being a stalker.

I also got to meet a ton of new people. Meeting bloggers made me realise I need to up my blogging game and bring it! I met a lot of other bloggers that were younger (as in their blog isn’t as old as mine), but I would consider theirs much better. I found it intimidating yet empowering and motivating. Coming out of this conference, I would really like to work on my food photography.

Meeting fellow Canadian Jessica of Sprouts and Chocolate who blew me away with her amazing foodography. And she’s completely adorable. Check out her blog – it’s the bomb!

I LOVE birthdays! I grew up in a household that made a huge deal of them, which I think was quite smart on my parents part, since now as an adult, I look forward to my birthday each and every year. And I get really excited when someone I love has a birthday. Ms. Robin‘s birthday happened last week and I was very excited to celebrate it with her. The only catch was that Terry and I had recently come across a somewhat large and very unexpected expense (for once it’s a fun one though – more details to come later this summer). I was a little bummed to not be able to buy her a cool gift. But it got me to be super creative in creating a birthday gift on a budget.

I did spend a bit of money, but was able to make her some cool things within a good budget. If you struggle with what to get someone for their birthday, just pay close attention to what they say for a few months before the big day. I know Robin was eyeing up these purple jars on Amazon.

Robin loves the colour purple and adores cute things, so it was pretty easy to think of how to throw this all together. I thought it would be cute to buy them and then make a different kind of treat to go in each one. It took a fair amount of time, but Robin is totally worth it =D

I also got her a balloon and flowers.

Definitely a purple theme going on…

It was really fun making the treats for the jars. My freezer looked like this for a week as I kept adding homemade things to it.

I made her kale chips, almond bark, date balls, almond butter cups, granola and artichoke dip (her favourite!). I totally threw the granola together and it turned out – I’ll share the recipe soon. It was fun to make different treats for each jar.

I wrapped it up in her favourite colour.

I made her a birthday card too, but forgot to take a picture of it (which is too bad as it was pretty adorable).

This gift cost less than I would normally spend on a birthday, but it took more time and effort and Robin seemed to really appreciate it.

Happy Birthday Robin! Here’s to many more years of celebrating together =)

We celebrated Terry’s birthday last week. He isn’t the type to enjoy making a big deal of things, which I normally don’t listen to. But this year we had a hectic schedule and are saving for an exciting trip this summer (stay tuned for more deets on that!). So we kept things low key.

I made him a card =)

You’ll see the front in another upcoming picture. He asked me if I would go with him to see the new Avengers movie and I told him no way. He was pleasantly surprised by this. We were planning to go Mother’s Day, last Sunday, but our plans changed when our poor pup got sick. She’s doing much better now =)

I made him a delicious supper, which I will share the recipe for shortly.

You can see the front of the card in this picture =)

And dessert!

He LOVES rhubarb and it’s in season right now (convenient timing!), so I made him a strawberry rhubarb cheezecake. It was delicious.

I made this supper the night before his birthday and the day of his actual birthday, we attended a wedding. I usually get a little nervous about weddings as I don’t always know many people and can’t eat much. But this was a vegan couple. YAY!

They rented out a cute restaurant in San Francisco and we had a ton of vegan Thai food. And fortunately, my good friend and bride, Kathy is also friends with Robin. So Robin and I went together with our significant others.

I liked how this wedding was also casual – we were told to wear whatever we wanted, even jeans & t-shirts if we so wished. But Robin and I still like to get dolled up. I don’t do it very often, so it was nice.

We had fun ;p

And ate a lot of delicious food!

Soooo much food. We could barely roll ourselves out the door when we were done! Fortunately, it was family style, so it was shared between four people. Still a ton of food though.

The couple rented out an apartment to have a reception after with champagne and cake to celebrate. Check out the view!

You know my favourite kind of birthday gift? The home-made kind! Sure it’s fun to buy things for people on special occasions. And it is more convenient and takes less time. But it’s not nearly as fun or thoughtful then making something fun with your own two hands.

Sadly, I am not a crafty person, so I resort to making treats.

This inspiration came from my friend Robin’s upcoming birthday. I wanted to make her something fun and sweet – just like the person she is =) I also wanted a cute presentation as she really likes all things cute (she actually looks like a life-sized doll – adorbs!). I met her through a meetup group about a year and a half ago and we have become quick best friends. She is easily the funnest, most thoughtful, resourceful and most awesome person I know. She’s constantly thinking of super fun things (like tea parties, zombie shambles, cute food dinners, etc) to do and always keeps me laughing. Robins is also one of the very few people in my life that I do not freak out when she comes over and my place is a mess and has seen me in yoga pants. Now that’s friendship ;p

This sweet treat is inexpensive, quick & easy to make.

Birthday Bark

1 cup of dark chocolate chips (I used Enjoy Life)

1/2 cup of almond pieces (I take my almonds, put them in a ziploc bag and smash them with a rolling pin – fun!)

Melt the chocolate chips on a very low temperature on your stove top until they are all melted. Remove the pot from heat and slowly add in half of the almonds and stir until well combined. Pour this mixture into a small baking pan lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle the remaining broken almond pieces on top and put it in the freezer until set (about 30 minutes). Remove from the freezer and break into bite-sized pieces.

I'm Kimmy, a holistic nutritionist on the path to healthy living and loving myself. I want to share my passion for kale and chocolate with you. I focus on allergy-friendly recipes and you will find some appetizing healthy eats as well as some delicious indulgences here. ♥